Warning: Fraudulent emails

Further information concerning fraudulent emails

Fraudulent emails sent in the name of the police or other authorities have been circulating in recent months. The purported senders include the Federal Department of Justice and Police FDJP, police authorities such as fedpol, cantonal police forces, Europol, or the Konferenz der kantonalen Polizeikommandantinnen und -kommandanten der Schweiz (KKPKS), and/or individuals such as Federal Councillors Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and Karin Keller-Sutter, fedpol Director Nicoletta della Valle or fedpol Vice Directors. The most important information regarding this situation can be found here.

Senders:

Typically, these fraudulent emails impersonate Federal Councillors Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and Karin Keller-Sutter or fedpol Director Nicoletta della Valle and other members of fedpol’s management board have also been used: Eva Wildi-Cortés, Yanis Callandret, Stéphane Theimer, Emre Ertan and Simon Spoerri.

Contents:

In most of these emails, the sender threatens to initiate criminal proceedings against the recipient for visiting websites containing child pornography. The senders demand to be contacted and usually send Word documents or PDFs as attachments.

What to do:

• Do not open the attachments.
• Do not reply to the email.
  
• Report the email to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
• To prevent further emails, you can mark the sender as spam and block it.

Further information concerning calls in the name of fake authorities (police, duty)

This starts with an apparent phone call from the police. A computer-generated voice informs the victim that their personal banking data has been brought into connection with a crime. For further information, the call recipient should press 1. The modus operandi was initially unclear, but the reports by members of the public indicate that in the case of a call back, the victim is told to download a remote access tool and grant the attackers access to their computer. Here too, the fraudsters try to persuade the victim to grant access to their e-banking account. Once the fraudsters have obtained access, they use the remote access tool to make payments in the background.

What to do:

• End such phone calls immediately.
• If you provided credit card details, contact your credit card company immediately to have the card blocked.
• If you made a payment, immediately contact the bank through which you made it. They may be able to stop the payment.
• Do not give anyone remote access to your computer. If you granted remote access, there is a possibility that your computer has been infected. The first step is to uninstall the remote access program. If you suspect an infection, have your computer examined immediately by a specialist and cleaned if necessary. The safest option is to completely reinstall the computer. However, do not forget to back up all personal data beforehand.

General information on the phenomenon of fraudulent emails and calls purporting to be from the authorities can be found on the website of the National Cyber Security Centre NCSC.

• It is also strongly recommended that you file a criminal complaint. By systematically filing a complaint, you can assist the police in the fight against cybercrime.
• To do that, contact your nearest police station.
• Filing a complaint online: complaints in connection with certain cyber offences can now be submitted online in 12 cantons via the Swiss ePolice platform (currently: AI; AR; BE; FR; GL; GR; LU; NE; SG; SZ; ZG; ZH.).